Chief Rabbi Goldschmidt tells the Munich Security Conference that “Religious communities must take the lead in tackling radicalisation”

Feb 19, 2018

Chief Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, President of the Conference of European Rabbis, together with President of the World Jewish Congress Ambassador, Mr. Ronald S. Lauder, hosted a high-level panel discussion, entitled ‘Countering Radicalism in Religious communities’.

The panel was chaired by Chief Rabbi Goldschmidt and focused on the link between radicalisation and the growth of terrorist incidents internationally. Since 9/11, there has been a growing trend of ‘home-grown’ terrorists, who are raised in Western Countries and following a radicalisation process, go on to commit heinous acts of terror. Over the last couple of years high profile attacks in London, Manchester and Paris to name but three, have been traced back to radicalisation.

Speaking to the MSC, Chief Rabbi Goldschmidt said: “Following the attacks on Charlie Hebdo and the Hyper Marche in Paris, we released our Manifesto on Extremism identifying a number of measures that religious communities can take to counter extremism. Three years on and we still believe that religious communities must take the lead in countering radicalisation. Religious leaders are best placed to identify possible radicalisation and inform the relevant They are the only people who have the ability to provide a moderate voice to counter extremism.”

Speakers on the panel included; Russian diplomat Sergey Kislyak , Mrs. Tzipi Livni – Co-Leader, The Zionist Union and Former Minister of Foreign Affairs of the State of Israel – retired Major General Mr. Amos Gilead who is now Executive Director at the Institute for Policy and Strategy, Mr. Steven Erlanger, Chief Diplomatic Correspondent at The New York Times and Mr. Ronen Bergman, Senior Correspondent for Military and Intelligence Affairs at Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth.